Part 21 (1/2)
”You can't possibly want me again, Aidan,” she protested, pus.h.i.+ng herself away from him and the temptation of his body.
His hands caught her waist and drew her against his already hard shaft. He traced the contour of her hips and stroked her bottom. ”You are beautiful, Alexandria,” he breathed as he rolled her onto her belly beneath him.
”Aidan.” His name came out in a breathless protest. His hands were strong-ruthless, even- pinning her in place, his breath on her back, his teeth closing over her shoulder when she tried to squirm free. The position made her feel intensely vulnerable.
Aidan pressed against her, his need to take control as strong as his need to give her pleasure. ”You want me, cara mia. I feel it.”
”It's too soon.”
”Not for your body.” Even as he said the words, his hand pushed against her to test her readiness, coming away bathed in liquid heat. ”Oh, G.o.d, Alexandria, how can I ever resist you?” He needed her all over again. Needed to feel, to be alive, to know she would always be a part of him, his life, that when he opened his eyes and took his first breath each evening, she would be there to give him ever-deepening emotions, and to look at him with something other than fear in her eyes.
Alexandria might have resisted his dominance, but she could not resist his burning need. The intensity of his feelings swept through her mind, and her body caught fire with his. She pushed back against him, consenting, enflaming him further. She was laughing softly, teasing, but her breath caught in her throat when he thrust forward in intimate invasion. Her body tightened around his, holding him, clutching him, rippling with life and heat.
One powerful arm tightened possessively around her waist, his body all at once protective over hers.
”Are we crazy, we two?” he murmured.
”You're the crazy one,” she gasped, moving with him, beginning to spin out of control again that fast. ”I have work to do, yet you keep me here, locked to you, a prisoner of your pa.s.sion,” she said, panting. He was building the fire fast, with sure, hard strokes, surging into her, his hands holding her beneath him. ”I can't believe I'm letting you get away with it.” And she couldn't. It seemed impossible that she would be kneeling on a bed stained with her own innocence and loving this man's possession of her, wanting more, wanting him again and again.
When they finally collapsed, holding each other, a fine sheen of perspiration coating their bodies, they were drained, spent, satiated. ”I heard you chanting in my head, the first time we...” She trailed off. ”The words were in your native language, weren't they?”
”I ensured our bond again,” he admitted. ”The thought of losing you through my own stupidity was too much. I recited the ritual words as I took your innocence, to bind us together for eternity.”
”I don't understand.”
”Those words make an unbreakable tie for our males. Once said, the bond is eternal.”
She rolled over and blinked up at him. ”What are you talking about?”
”When a Carpathian male finds his mate and knows for certain she is the one, he can bind her to him with the ritual words even if he has not yet claimed her body. It is like the human marriage ceremony but much deeper. Our souls and hearts are one half of the same whole, incomplete when apart. The ritual words bind them back together as they were meant to be.”
Her gaze narrowed in speculation. ”I thought the two were bound by chemistry, by blood.”
”They are destined, true, and the bond is begun.” He pushed his long hair from his face and retreated to one side of the bed, as if uneasy with the conversation.
”So the woman can still escape if the man doesn't actually say the ritual words?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders, his golden gaze all at once unreadable. ”Why would he be so stupid as to not speak them when he knows her destiny lies with him? He would be a fool.”
”Perhaps it would be nice if he asked the woman what she thought. Human men at least ask the woman if she chooses to spend her life with him. Perhaps Carpathian women would also like to have a choice.”
He shrugged again. ”It is the choice of destiny, fate, whatever you wish to call it. The law of the universe. The law of G.o.d. We were made this way. The words cannot be revoked. No Carpathian male is going to allow his woman to run around unprotected and unclaimed.”
”You people are living in the Dark Ages! You can't just take over someone's life without their consent. It isn't right,” she argued, appalled.”A Carpathian male cannot survive without his lifemate.”
”Well, just how many years do you want to live anyway?” she demanded hotly.
His golden eyes flashed briefly with amus.e.m.e.nt, and his palm slid up her calf to her thigh. ”I would go for another century or two as long as all our nights were like this one.”
His voice did something funny to her heart, starting that curious melting sensation she so often experienced around him. She wanted to be angry with him, but the truth was, if she could have more nights like this one, she wanted a century or two with him herself.
”I am reading your thoughts,” he teased, his voice a deliberate caress.
”It's time you stopped. Don't you have something else to keep you occupied for a while? And don't think you're off the hook with this thing. You just can't go around making decisions that affect my life without consulting me.” She regarded him suspiciously. ”What else can you do without my knowledge?”
He leaned across the bed and kissed her full on the mouth, lingering to savor the taste of her. ”You name it, cara, and I can do it.”
She jerked away from him and slapped at the hand that was moving into her tight nest of curls.
”Don't be bragging, Aidan. This is not a good thing.”
”I think it is an excellent thing. I will need everything in my bag of tricks to keep you in line. I look forward to each minute of it, Alexandria.”
”You're forgetting my annoying little habits, and I think they've just begun to multiply.”
He groaned. ”You are really going to try to reform me?”
”Someone has to do it.” Her hand found his. ”I'm used to a certain amount of freedom, Aidan. I need it. I could never be happy if you took it away from me.”
He cupped her chin in one hand, his gold eyes sweeping intently over her upturned face. ”I am aware of the compromises both of us will have to make, Alexandria. I do not expect that they will all be on your side. I ask only that you allow me room to make a few mistakes.”
She nodded. He could so easily steal her heart. With a look. A few words. That voice of his, pure black magic. ”How can I be so crazy about you and so afraid at the same time?”
”You are in love with me.” He said it quietly.
She blinked, shocked, as if she had never considered it.
”That's a little strong, Aidan. You swept me up in all this so quickly, against my will.”
”You love me,” he a.s.serted calmly.
She made a small retreat, a few inches across the bed. ”I don't know you well enough to love you.”
”No? You have been in my mind. You have shared my thoughts, my memories. You know everything about me, good as well as bad. And you gave yourself to me. You would not have done so if you were not in love with me.”
She swallowed hard. She did not want to face this right now; it was too overwhelming. She tried to be flippant. ”It's just the power of s.e.x.”
His eyebrows shot up.”You dance so beautifully?” she ventured hopefully.
”I have been in your mind, too, cara mia. There is no hiding the truth from me.” He sounded smugly satisfied.
Alexandria a.s.sumed her most haughty expression, dragged the comforter around her shoulders, and kept silent.
”Is it really so difficult to admit to loving me?” His voice was a caress, wrapping her up in safe, loving arms.
”Why is it so important to have this discussion right now? I'm with you, and I'm obviously not going anywhere.”